Moon Fury
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Emma follows Regina into the woods to help her hunt a werewolf. Regina is adamant about her not coming along. Emma quickly discovers why this is.
1. The Awakening

**I know I did a story like this before with Outlaw Queen, but I wanted to give it a whirl with Swan Queen as Swan Queen has a totally different dynamic than Outlaw Queen. Plus I just really love the idea of werewolf Regina. There are just so many vampire Gina stories out there and not enough werewolf ones.**

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The feeling of despair and unease was fast reaching its peak. The moon hung full and searing in the night sky, it's light seeming to overpower all of the stars around it and with only a few clouds for coverage. And Emma was still there, standing stubbornly in the clearing.

The sickly feeling that had been clawing at Regina since the weeks beginning—ever since laying eyes on the calendar—grew every second that Emma continued to fiercely stand her ground. The woman just didn't seem to realize how critical things were.

 _"I'm not just going to let you run off and hunt this thing down alone!"_ The words echoed in Regina's mind loudly and clearly.

 _"And I'm not going to let you come with me! I can fight this alone."_ Regina had chosen her words very carefully, and still Emma didn't let go of her savoir complex. In fact, Regina faintly recalled her saying something along the lines of being the savior, and having a duty to protect the town.

Regina shot another glace at the moon, mocking them through a dense curtain of branch and pine needle. If only the trees could blanket them from the moon's rays. But that's not how it worked.

Not at all.

They always seemed to penetrate even the thickest of canopies and the puffiest of night clouds.

No matter what, Regina was exposed and venerable. She shivered at the thought. _Emma is venerable_. She thought, and the nauseous feeling struck her all over again with an even nastier bite.

 _Bite_.

She hated that word.

Emma locked eyes with her. "Stop worrying so much, I've got this. We've got this." She heard Emma say through the fearful fog in her head. "Everything is going to end tonight. Storybrook won't have anything to fear after we're done."

 _I could run_. Regina thought. She began to tremble all over—a nasty habit whenever she felt panicy.

"You're shaking like crazy." Emma reached a hand out. "You said you could fight this thing alone, and yet you seem…terrified." Emma's hand was on her shoulder now, hitching Regina's fear up to an even higher notch.

Regina flinched away. "Don't touch me!" She snapped.

"Whoa, where did that come from?" Emma grumbled.

"I'm worried. I'm worried about _you_ , not myself." Regina replied, her voice softening. She slowly backed away, putting the distance back between she and Emma. Regina dared peek up at the moon; the stretch of clouds was quickly—but painfully slowly at the same time—coming to an end. _I should run,_ Regina thought again.

From somewhere just within ear shot came the first howl. Drawn out and agonized. Something about it made her feel like it was already too late. A series of yips and yowls came to join the first call. Another howl—this one much closer—had Regina's body going completely tense. With awful dread, she wondered if it really was the fear making her tense. Without thinking, Regina took another step back.

She held her head to the sky, a hazy sheet of moonlight glowed over her face as the last of the clouds waved a reluctant goodbye. Regina closed her eyes, her face a shade or two lighter under the unmisted moonrays.

Regina held her hands up in some sort of dazed surrender. A tear prickled at the corner of her eye, given an extra glimmer under the moon glow. The howling had come to a halt. Everything came to a halt. The eerie hooting ceased. Not a cricket's chirp nor a frog's croak dared interrupt the silence. Even the trees found themselves afraid to muster up a rustle. Not a creature in the forest wanted to give itself away.

A considerable amount of time came to pass in that oppressive, nerve fraying silence, and for a moment Regina thought that she'd be okay…that they'd be okay.

What a cruel joke.

Regina stared at the woman across the clearing, whose blue eyes rested with a flash of determination in the direction of the last howl. She locked eyes with Regina. She flashed Regina one of her reassuring smiles.

"Emma please…"

In a blink's time, Regina doubled over and let out a piercing scream. A shrill and familiar ringing filled her ears. It has happened before, many of times, but she could still swear that one of these days her ears would rupture and bleed. She clasped her hands over her ears, as if that would stop the dull pounding in her head from swelling into something worse.

"Regina!" Emma shouted.

And she felt a surge of primal rage come to the surface. _Why the hell was Emma still standing there?_ And after she had made it so clear that she didn't want her around. Regina clenched her teeth. She found herself hunched over on her hands and knees, her entire body now wracked with pain and spasms. A distinct sensation akin to the splitting of muscles, beset the woman. She cried out a second time. The pulling and stretching feeling would be next. Her back arched in both anticipation and transformation. She winced with every involuntary flex. And the pounding behind her eyes became unbearable. This time her scream was accompanied by a muffled sob. The torture was already intolerable and the worst hadn't even come to pass. But it was next.

The jarring crack of bones snapping and realigning. A God-awful sound…the worst she'd ever heard.

Would have heard.

In that moment, pain was its own sound.

Regina winced, feeling as though her ribs were going to poke through the delicate flesh protecting them. A steady flow of tears came to run down her cheeks where they met her hands. She gave another hushed sob. She missed them already.

Another burst of white hot pain had her hands digging into the ground, she could feel the dirt wedging itself uncomfortably beneath her fingernails. She had just gotten them done too. Something between a grimace and a laugh escaped her lips. Something in her was growing unhinged.

She dug harder into the ground as the agony grew shaper and clearer still. An effort made much easier and much more disastrous to the poor patches of flowers and tufts of moss, when her nails elongated into claws. Another simply peachy feeling. She snarled to herself. She welcomed the new emotion, it drowned out the suffering. She wanted to slam her head against the ground, anything to bring it all to an end.

Regina had just enough time to look up, and when she did her heart—her erratically beating heart—welled with pain; in this whirl of hurt, feral anger and distress, she could see that Emma was still standing there. Worse still, Emma had grown ballsy enough to come even closer and take her by the claw.

"What are you doing?" Regina heaved the words out with a great labor. She didn't let the sheriff explain herself. Acting mostly on impulse—one last demented display of care—she shoved Emma away from her and with more force behind it than she had ever intended.

She saw Emma land with a thud some feet away. At least now she had some kind of a head start.

Regina's head whipped back, as if she had just been struck in the face. And perhaps…in a sense…she had been. In sheer shock, she let out another wail. For a moment, it was all over. For a moment, she felt nothing but a dull pulsing in her gums. She spent this time panting loudly, trying to catch her breath. The uncomfortable pulsing intensified. She'd take that over the firey soreness any day. Forgetting herself for one blissful moment she bit down and offered herself the rudest of awakenings. Canines splitting deeply into her cheeks. Blood blossomed fresh and coppery from the punctures, drizzling from the corners of her abused mouth.

The half-growl half-shriek that she let out was a potent reminder that was no longer human. She fell fully to the ground and with one final display of humanity. Buried a face that was only half familiar to her under a completely foreign arm and wept.

Her mind—a mind slowly being devoured by a wolf's mind—gave one last thought. One that she hadn't exactly meant to vocalize.

"You weren't supposed to see me like this, Emma."


	2. The Art Of Fleeing

Without doing any of the thinking that she ought to have done, Emma edged closer to Regina. Closer and closer still until she had her arms around the her. She brushed a hand over her face, a face still stuck somewhere between wolf and woman. She could feel the anguish still radiating off of the woman as thick as the clouds that stalked the moon. In the silence of the woods, Emma could faintly make out Regina's soft whimpers. Between them, she was trying to say something. The only thing Regina managed to accomplish, however, was letting more blood leak from her mouth, causing Emma to tense up and shudder. A splotch of red branched out over the collar of her shirt. Against Emma's neck brushed a warm layer of newly risen fur.

With that, the creature that used to be Regina gave one final twitch before going limp in her arms.

She knew then that she should have ran.

She should have ran the minute that Regina had shoved her away.

Instead she held onto the werewolf until she stirred. The realization bombarded her with a tremendous force. Wincing at what she was about to do, she heaved Regina out of her arms. She put into it a boost of magic. The sound of Regina's transformed body slamming against a tree broke her heart. She hoped that this transformation had thickened her skin…literally. But at the same time—for her own sake—Emma hoped for the opposite.

Without looking back she made a beeline for the thickets. "Shit!" She hissed, as a thorn branch took hold of her ankle. "Bad idea. Bad, bad idea." Of course the thickets were going to throw her off more than they would Regina. She briefly considered that hiding would be her best option. She slammed her fist against her forehead. _What a stupid plan, she's a wolf, she'll find me no matter where I go._ The thought had her on her feet and pushing forward. She stumbled out of the thickets with enough noise to wake Sleepy.

Unlike Emma herself, Regina was a quiet predator. She hadn't made a single noise that allowed Emma to discern her movements from typical night sounds. Not even a muffled snarl to signal her location.

Emma's heart thundered beneath her rib cage.

She looked at the gun in her hand.

And the thundering became deafening.

She had loaded the thing with a round of silver bullets. In other words it was useless, she couldn't use it. Not on Regina. But the one in the Sherriff's car wasn't. She looked across the clearing and between the trees, to the spot where it was parked just at the forest's edge. Emma sucked in a deep breath, she's was going to have to make a run for it.

The forest never looked so menacing as it did in that moment. The only sound came from the light rustle of the bold leaves that dared to stir. The space between each and every tree was filled with a vast, seemingly tangible dark that coughed up a soft creeping mist. Even if Regina was crouching somewhere in one of those spaces, Emma couldn't even hope to pick her out. And she cursed the moon for it. The awful orb had the audacity to initiate Regina's transformation, but no courtesy to at least light forest. The burst of anger came with a bout of courage. Before that courage could simmer away, Emma got to her feet and tore into an all-out sprit.

It was in one silent blur of motion.

Just as silent as the very second before.

Regina let herself fall from above, landing right a top Emma. The only sound roused was a startled cry. A fairly loud one at that. Not that it mattered anyhow, she had already been found. Regina had probably known where she was hiding all along. Emma could picture her wolven form perched in the trees, teasing her, stalking her…waiting. Waiting for the right time to attack.

Waiting for Emma to pave the way to her own destruction.

Deep down she was still Regina.

One version of Regina anyhow.

The wolf was playing the same cunning and vindictive game that mayor had always been fond of.

But this time Emma didn't know how to avoid the kill. So she too reverted back to old antics. Brute strength and stubbornness. Without thinking she landed a punch on Regina's jaw.

Even still, the former woman didn't make as sound. Even still she didn't relent. On the contrary, she pressed her weight more heavily onto Emma. The savior hissed to herself. Her old antics worked on the old Regina, because the old Regina didn't have this kind of barbaric and raw strength. Regina…her Regina had a lot going for her—brains, good planning, and magic—but she never had the muscle. That was Emma's job. That was how Emma had planned on taking the mayor down. That simply wasn't going to work in this situation. But she continued to struggle and squirm beneath the werewolf's crushing weight. She could feel her wrists start to tingle under an ungodly tight grip.

"Regina, please." Emma winced. "If there's any part of you that's still you…" She locked eyes with the wolf. Such uncanny eyes. Golden eyes that glowed with a supernatural brightness. But they were still hers. They were still Regina's behind that vibrant hue. And there was something else…

Pain Emma realized, it was the pain that made the look in Regina's eyes uncanny. It wasn't just the pain itself, Emma realized, rather how it was intermingled with a glimmer of rage. How it was buried under one of the most vicious and feral death glares Emma had ever received. And she had received a lifetime of them from Regina.

"You're still there. I know you are, I can see it." Emma tried.

This time Regina answered with the swipe of her clawed hands. They buried themselves horrifically deep into Emma's stomach. She let out a shrill scream. The kind that surely had the children of Storybrook shivering under their covers and Granny grabbing her crossbow. It was surreal really, last full moon Emma had been listening to the howls and screams from a distance—from the safety of her mother's apartment—chilled the bone. Now she had become the screams.

She moved her head to the side just in time to avoid the snap Regina had made at her neck. "Regina, you _have_ to snap out of it." That look in her eyes had to mean something. Perhaps true love's kiss would work, it always seemed to work for her parents.

Emma's eyes fell on Regina's snout. On the jagged bloody teeth and the snarl that was baring them. _Hell no._ She thought to herself. There was no way she was putting her lips near that, Regina or not. Again the former woman went for her throat.

Emma bit her lip. She couldn't see any other way. "Please don't hate me for this." She muttered before bringing the butt of her gun down on Regina's snout. To her luck, the hit was hard enough. Just hard enough to open the threshold. Emma delivered another strike in the same spot and kicked the wolf-woman off of her.

Regina let loose an agonized growl. For the second time that night, Emma's heart flooded with pain. She'd hurt Regina again. Her stomach clenched at the realization that the damaged Regina sustained might become more devastating when she returned to her human form. The realization that when the fur cleared away, the soft and smooth skin Emma had loved caressing would be a collage of bruises.

She shoved the thoughts aside. If she didn't start hauling ass, she probably wouldn't have any skin of her own left.

As Emma began her wild dash, Regina got to her feet. Emma uttered a string of swears and pushed herself harder than she ever had before. She threw herself into the sheriff car and floored it. She smiled to herself; it had been Regina's idea to leave the keys in the ignition. She couldn't even begin to fathom how the woman with the common sense to avoid the most painful horror movie mistake, was the same woman who _didn't_ have the common sense to tell Emma the truth in the first place.

She spared one last look behind her. Regina was fast, she was keeping pace. Just like many of her old schemes, Regina was just a hair's length away from victory. And just like many of her old schemes, she failed to grasp the victory by only a little bit.

Emma watched her in the rearview mirror until she was no more than a haunting, fuzzy, dark brown speck. A speck that disappeared with alarming speed, back into the forest. She took one hand off the wheel to heal the slash on her belly. Healing quite up her alley, but she closed it just enough to keep herself out of the hospital. The rest of her ride was numb and mundane. Somehow the ordeal already seemed distant.

Emma pulled into the only gas station in Storybrook and brought the car to a stop. The lot was barren and dark, save for one occasionally flickering streetlight. The very same one Emma had been pestering Regina to have fixed just that morning.

"What if it's the middle of the night and I have an emergency and need to stop here. I'd at least like to be able to see the monster coming." Emma had said.

She recalled Regina rolling her eyes and saying, "I'll get around to it. All of the town's repair funds have been going into that damn clocktower. What kind of monster is going to follow you to a gas station anyhow?" And then something about how her bug was so bright she wouldn't be able to hide anywhere anyways.

Emma laughed, that was so much like Regina. So much like _her_ Regina. She looked down, her hands were all wet. _Blood?_ She wondered to herself. But the liquid was clear. She brought a hand to her cheeks. She was crying.

Crying and she didn't even realize it.

She slammed her fist on the steering wheel. Over and over and over. Those silent tears falling into her lap. She was the savior, why is it that she could never seem to help Regina? Instead she always seemed to hurt her.


	3. Sun After Moon

**Just wanted to thank everyone for the lovely reviews before actually getting into the chapter.**

 **Shadow: Thank you. I also enjoy me a good werewolf fic.**

 **The Evil Queen's Pet: I plan on it. I also plan on getting back to the Outlaw Queen version of it too, eventually. :)**

 **Ablessing 17: I plan on it, given the time. Gonna try to focus on this one.**

 **Guest 1: Thank you as well. Yes, I've noticed the same thing; Regina's always just a witch or a human and Emma is usually the supernatural being. I kind of wanted to change it up a little. I was thinking of vampire Regina but I feel like that has been done a lot too since vamps are depicted as more classy and beautiful. I wanted a more rough and rugged Regina, and the werewolf concept could provide that.**

 **jessievamp06: And another thank you to you; I'm glad you enjoyed it so far.**

 **Guest 2: Thanks, I hope to keep them coming at least somewhat regularly!**

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Pulsing and pounding and bright searing light intermingled with charming bird calls and the pungent scent of resin. Each bombarded her at the same time and with different intensities. Her mind scrambled and shifted from one to the next until it finally found focus on a one sensation. A new one—the feeling of sun warming her bare back, just slightly warm enough to be uncomfortable. She must have been lying like that for some time as she could already sense the harsh tickle of a sunburn.

Regina sat herself upright and though the forest was vacant—save for a few early rising rabbits, squirrels, and humming birds—instinctively folded her arms of her breasts. She closed her eyes for a moment, drinking in the pristine verdant air. The smell of late blooming lilac and beardtongue wafted around her. She could practically feel a soft and fluttering rain of petals washing over her. She opened her eyes and for an even briefer moment she almost forgot her deeply rooted troubles. Almost forgot what dire situation had put her in this forest in the first place.

As always, it was pain that brought her attention back. As soon as it hit, Regina found herself back on the ground, curled up and clutching her middle. She lay there silently, fresh out of cries and whimpers. A more careful observation of her beaten body offered her mural of bumps and bruises central to her stomach but also heavy on her right breast. Her skin was decorated with minor injuries, a constellation of pain and abuse. Her fingertips brushed over the cuts and scrapes on her arms. With a surreal sense of calmness, Regina realized that nearly all of the minor lacerations on her forearms and biceps were etched in by pine needle. They were just thin and deep enough to match the penmanship of a pine needle. The scraps on her elbows were more consistent with the bark. Her back must have taken the same damage, the pain was of the same kind.

She snickered bitterly to herself; she'd grown so accustom to agony that she could now pick out which kind was which in a flurry of different kinds of pain.

She absently, and carefully all the same, rubbed her elbows. She vaguely recalled slamming into a tree. All of her memories from the night prior were fuzzy, but the blood beneath her nails and the full body ache could only have one connection. The ability to weep resurfaced, but still she held her tears. The anguish of her transformation was now a phantom resting at the edge of her senses—and was the source of the throbbing in her muscles.

Regina jolted upright again as another feeling bombarded her nerves. She brought her hand to her lips. A steady stream of blood was slithering downward, seeping between the two fingers that she remained pressed there. This fresher pain was far sharper and more searing. But not nearly as so the emotional pangs that came with the sudden burst of memories. It was as the physical pain had opened the floodgates to her subconscious mind.

She swallowed down a lump that had formed in her throat and glanced at her trembling hand. She'd taken a good swipe at Emma with it.

The blood.

The blood was Emma's.

That was where her mind lingered. A hazy buzz of guilt. Images from the night before looping over and over again, playing out vividly as if they had just transpired. She was a monster, she concluded. Even when she didn't want to be. And with a concerning amount of her soul, Regina wished that Emma would have just used the silver bullet on her. She was a month away from killing someone. She always would be.

She looked towards zenith, where the moon had so viciously hung the night before. The ugly luminescent disk wouldn't show itself when night fell. Regina was thankful for that. But it would be back. It would taunt her as it revealed itself anew, sliver by sliver.

The mayor was deep in her remorseful thinking when the sound of footfalls and branches snapping cut the semi-silence. Regina gave a start and reflexively covered herself. Her arm fell lax upon clearly seeing the woman who stepped out of the tree line and came to sit behind her.

"You look rough." Emma rustled a hand through Regina's already tousled hair. "You didn't even take the twigs out." She picked a leaf out of the woman's hair and held it out to her.

Regina huffed and flicked it away. "You think that _that's_ what I'm worried about?"

Emma put her hands up. "You're mad at me aren't you." She cupped Regina's chin in her hands, her eyes zeroing in on the bruised and swelling corner of her girlfriend's mouth. She hovered her pointer over it, before withdrawing. "I'd be mad at me too."

"Mad at you?" Regina quietly put the question out. "No. Not at you. Not for this anyways." She covered the battered corner of her mouth. "I told you not to follow me! I told you to stay home!" She was giving Emma those dramatic hand gestures that were so characteristic of her. "If you would have just left when I told you too—or at the very least, had mustered up the brainpower to run sooner—none of _this_ would have happened." She motioned over her figure.

"I got hurt too!" Emma shouted, her guilt subsiding for the moment. "I wouldn't have had to throw you against the tree if you didn't charge at me."

Regina flinched and seemed to sink back into the tree. Her expression turned stony. "And I wouldn't have done that if you had just listened to me." She repeated her one and only excuse.

Emma furrowed her brows. "Or you could have _told_ me the truth."

Regina's effort to burrow into the tree grew, "I-I didn't know how to." She wrapped her arms around herself. The next thing to come out of her mouth sounded even more foolish when she let it slip, "it was…embarrassing." She was flushing.

"Regina…"

She looked up at Emma, waiting for her to finish.

"I don't know why you would think that." Emma said at last. "It's actually kinda badass."

"You aren't taking this seriously." Regina turned away from Emma, arms folded over her chest. With her back turned, Emma could clearly see the searing red scrapes and scratches completely covering her skin and anymore jokes she could have made, died on her tongue. She had done that to Regina. Necessity or not, it was brutal. Rather it looked that way. Emma wanted Regina to cover up, if for no other reason than to keep her from having to see the true extent of the damage she had taken. But both fortunate and unfortunately the woman seemed to be in no hurry to find clothing.

"Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood." Emma apologized, her eyes still pinned to the deepest cut, one that slashed down the immediate left of Regina's spine. Without thinking, Emma reached out and grazed her finger over the wound. Regina's flinch caused a mirror reaction in Emma. She wanted to slap herself, who is actually obnoxious enough to touch a fresh cut like that? Regina drew in a sharp breath and swatted away the few uninvited tears that prickled the corner of her eyes.

"I could heal that for you." Emma offered quickly. "I mean, I'm still not too good at it, but I fixed myself up." She pulled up her shirt to show a row faintly pink rimmed claw marks. A torrent of guilt and shame marred Regina's demeanor.

Emma took Regina's hand—her gentle, human hand in hers and pressed the woman's fingers to the jagged cuts. "See, they don't even hurt anymore. No harm done."

Regina let her touch linger there for a brief time, taking in the feeling of slightly raised and feverishly warm skin. "Are you sure it's healing well?"

"Absolutely. I feel much better, actually." Emma insisted. She had to get that remorseful look off of Regina's face. "I think I did more damage to you." She held out one of Regina's arms—the worser injured of the two. "So if you don't mind I'll you know…" her palm emitted a faint white glow.

Regina drew herself in closer to Emma and held her other arm out. She watched the wide gashes transform into thin scratches. She felt Emma's hands glide over her back, and closed her eyes as the pain ebbed away in a steady flow of the lightest magic. Areas of searing and stabbing pain reduced themselves to weak tickles and dim jabs. The tight knots and strains in her muscles dulled into minor cramps—not ideal, but much better than the alternative. As Emma moved her hands over Regina's ribcage, the woman came to find that she could once again move without upsetting her tense muscles or the fear of splitting a cut further open. It was a solid seven minutes of magic-induced bliss.

Upon finishing, Emma's tender touch lingered over Regina's heart. Her newly healed body relaxed into strong and caring arms. "Thank you, Emma." Regina wrapped her arms around her, head dipping down over jacket-clad shoulders, her hair cascading forward. She found herself appreciative of the special care Emma always seemed to have for her, the kind of care that had been absent from her life for so long. And it suddenly seemed absurd to have hidden the truth from her. She nuzzled her head in the crook of Emma's neck.

It was comforting to the other woman to feel the brush of Regina's nose against her neck. To feel her naked chest pressed against her body and hands gripping at her jacket. To have that sense of normalcy. To know that it was all over and in the past now. Emma tentatively rubbed the mayor's back, it was nice to have _her_ Regina back. Her caring, gentle, and contradicting snarky, powerful Regina.

She kissed the top of Regina's head, the scent of pine and sap still clinging heavily to it. Everything was going to be okay. Okay and normal.

At least for the time being.


	4. A Twinge Of Hope

**Thanks again for the kind reviews. I'm very happy to see that people are enjoying reading this as much as I am typing it. :)**

 **Also, fair warning, this chapter is pretty slow. It's kind of the backstory, pave the plotholes chapter.**

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In stark contrast to all of the awful feelings from the night and day prior, Regina stepped out of the shower with a water clinging to her hair and a feeling of ease. It was refreshing to watch blood and dirt swirl down the drain, she could just faintly pretend that the events that had created the blood and dirt, were also flowing into the drain and away from her.

For a brief time the water stung at open sores and cuts. But after that moment was nothing but a comforting warmth. Though Regina didn't yet bring the soap to her body, she didn't want to initiate another round of irritation.

She wrapped the nearest towel around her body and retreated to find something cozy to slip into. Something silky, preferably. She picked out a book and spread herself out on her bed, thumbing through the pages until she found where she had left off. Seventeen pages in, Emma flopped down—nearly on top of her and began to fire every single question she'd been holding in since the night before. The rapid-fire interrogation started with, "how long have you been a werewolf anyways." And ended with, "is this a bad time. How much time needs to go by before it's appropriate to start asking questions?"

Regina sighed and pressed her novel shut. Truth be told it was a bad time. Every time would be a bad time. The woman was content to just forget about the whole thing until the next full moon. And this time she'd lock herself away somewhere.

Somewhere far.

Regina wrapped her arms around herself. Thinking about the how's, the why's, and the who's always brought about some mild distress.

"Who bite you anyways?" Through her thoughts, she heard Emma ask one last forgotten question.

That last question was as good a place to start as any. "It wasn't a bite, it was a curse of some sort or another."

"Well that's good, at least you know it can be broken." Emma scooted closer to Regina, whose expression had grown even more solemn.

"That's the thing Emma, I don't think it can be. I've been trying for a while now. It seems like this curse is just as binding as the real thing. To reverse this I would need a very special potion, something derived from the opposites of every ingredient in the first one."

"Okay, that's no problem, I'll help you go get them. It'll be like a big crazy date—like a romantic trip across the realms." Momentarily forgetting about Regina's condition, Emma patted her on the back. "Sorry." Emma winced upon Regina's flinch.

"It's alright dear." She muttered. "Anyways, it isn't so simple Emma. Don't you think I'd have already done it if it was. The truth is, I only know one of the ingredients of the original potion; three strands of werewolf fur. Three _different_ types."

"There are different types of werewolves?"

"There are different types of regular wolves, are there not?" Regina offered a half-smile. The half-smile she always offered Emma when she said something naïve. Emma had grown to enjoy that look.

"What is the opposite of werewolf fur anyways?" Emma question.

"Vampire hair." Regina replied. Though she wasn't completely sure of it herself, guesswork was all that she had. She picked up her book and pretended to flip through the pages.

"You still didn't tell me who did this to you?" Emma cracked her knuckles and punched her palm once and then a second time for emphasis and good measure.

The slight chuckle she had elicited from the other woman was well worth it. "I apricate the sentiment, Emma, but I'm not quite certain of that either. It happed such a long time ago. He was on of the many suitors my mother tried to bargain me off to. So long as he had money and status, she never did any background checks. I suppose this man would only take a shewolf for a bride." Regina's tone was so completely nonchalant for someone speaking about something so profound. It almost disturbed Emma more than when the former queen got alarmingly emotional. Before Emma could think up a decent response, Regina continued. "It's so frustrating, Emma. That was just one more thing my curse freed me from. And for a while after magic was brought back—even after Ruby transformed again," She elaborated, "I didn't. I thought I was free." Her voice dropped into something just above a whisper. "It happened again for the first time just after we got back from the Underworld." She glanced up at Emma with those sorrowful eyes.

Emma frowned. "It's been a while then, hasn't it?"

Regina nodded.

They were noiseless for a moment. "I gotta hand it to you, you've done a pretty good job of keeping your own secret."

A new look of horror spread over Regina's face. "Emma. You can't. Say anything. _Anything_. About this to anyone." In her fleeting moment of panic, she had Emma by the shoulders, gripping a little too firmly.

"Ouch…"

Regina's expression softened and she laxed her hold, "please Emma, don't say anything."

"Alright, alright. But you'll have to tell the town sooner or later. They can't find out on their own."

Regina pulled her legs up to her chest, she shook her head. "I think I killed someone, Emma, during the last full moon. They just stopped treating me like I'm evil…" she trailed off. She turned to the side and propped her head up against the bedpost, her body going limp. Emma could feel the defeat ebbing off of her.

"This is different, Regina. This time you can't control it."

Regina shifted against the bedpost and wrapped her arms around herself tighter still. She still hadn't a tear to spare but her calm distress was becoming more and more apparent before Emma's eyes.

"How about this, tomorrow morning we'll track down the ingredients from the first potion. And then we'll get the ingredients for the new one."

Regina changed positions again, her lips pressed firmly together.

"I'll do it myself if I have to." Emma vowed.

"I'll go with you. After all it is _my_ problem that we're solving." She sighed.

"I knew you'd see it my way." Emma bumped her one the shoulder, this time taking the care to seek out an unbruised spot.

"I don't really have much of a choice do I? You get something in your mind and… well, I've never been able to get you to budge before."

"Trust me, this time you're going to be glad that I'm a stubborn pain in the ass. We're going to fix your wolf problem, _and_ we're going to go on a road trip!"

"Well, if that's how you see it, dear." Regina clicked the light off and instantly regretted not closing the curtains before crawling in bed. Through the window, the moon was just a sliver in the sky. A menacing silver thread, counting down the nights of peace she had left. A cratered clock indicating just how much time she and Emma _didn't_ have during this quest.


End file.
